MacKay-grams - January

Dance party! Awwwww yeah!  We love to just turn on Pandora and go for it!

I love the pure kid joy on these faces.  January Vegas weather is the best-- plus I've gotta rub it in to those people enjoying their tundra--hahahaha!

Coloring at Bella's house.  Auntie Shannon does preschool, so she has some sweet butcher paper to color on when preschool is over!

 This Brookie-girl LOVES  the swings!  We will spend over an hour at the park, and she will spend 90% of that on the swings.  Brookie is also very proud to be able to pump herself!  Love this face!

 January at the park ROCKS!

 

I love it when these two play together.  They have a magic that is all their own.  Notice Brooklynn's outfit.  It is one of her favorites, and one of my least favorites (it actually looks kinda cute in this picture, but trust me it's funky.)  So, we made a deal-- I call it her "pirate princess" dress-up and she can only wear it in the house-- she changes out of her clothes and into dress-ups mulitple times daily.  

January 2016

The 1st month of the year is already over and it's been a busy month for sure!

It all started with my birthday.  Drew surprised me with a fancy night out to Barbacoa.  It is a Mexican/Argentine restaurant and it is A-MAZ-ING!  I'm talking juicy, mouthwatering, and light it on fire amazing!  That's right, fire was involved.  It was so delicious...drool.

Inside Barbacoa - this is one of the many chandeliers throughout the restaurant.

Ava had an exciting month.  DeAnna nominated Ava for an "Incredible Kid" to the radio station and... she won!  

Ava won tickets to Wahooz Fun Zone, donuts from Krispy Kreme and a Pizza Party for her entire class at school.  She was so surprised!  The radio called us at 6:30 in the morning to break the news and then played the interview on the radio.   Ava was so shy on the phone but when she hung up she did a happy dance and I knew the shock had worn off.  Thank you Grandma for such a special surprise.

Then last week, Ava and I had the unique opportunity to go skiing at Bogus Basin with her school.  Every year the school takes the 4th and 5th graders to ski night where they receive 2 hours of instruction and then 3 more hours of free play on the slopes.  This little fireball did awesome!  She looked like she had no fear and went zipping down this mountain with no problems!  I'm a proud momma!

A special 'Thank You' to my mom for watching the boys while Ava and went skiing and Drew was on shift.  They had a blast with Nana!

Ava and her best friend Clara

Carter is potty trained!  I have been trying for months with no long-term success.  He would usually try it for a day and them quit, with absolutely no interest in continuing.  So finally, I decided to take away the diapers and put him in underwear.  I resolved to ask him every hour on the hour if he needed to go potty, and somehow it worked.  He didn't need bribes or rewards.  He just decided he was "big enough" and that was it.  It took about a week and a half to make it a regular thing, but now I don't even have to remind him.  He just goes #1 and #2 on his own.  He does need some help with the finer points like wiping, and I haven't let him go overnight without a pull-up yet, but he is doing an amazing job! 

The look on his face is a mix between excitement and worry!

On January 26th, Drew celebrated 1 year with the Star Fire Dept!  It has flown by and we couldn't be prouder of our firefighter!  

Finally, Brycen has started taking Tae Kwon Do lessons.  He loves it.  I love watching him.  When he started he was so quiet and shy, but now he is loud and confident and having so much fun.  I think this class will be really good for him.

Whew!  It has been a busy month.

Gratitude - The Generous One

I originally wrote this last December after listening to Elder Uchtdorf's Christmas Devotional talk about the background of the song "Carol of the Bells" or as he called it, "The Generous One."

It's been a whirlwind these past few months.  I plan on back-dating this post, along with several others that should have been posted over the holidays.  But I thought it might be something everyone would enjoy now too.

In October we found out that our time at the Huntington house was up.  It literally sold overnight, we scrambled to find a new place, Jason's sister Shannon led us to the perfect house -- across the street from her!, Mom and Dad gave up their Thanksgiving so that Mom could help me move, Jason's business license FINALLY came through, and so many other amazing things have happened.

Truly the Lord's timing is evident in our lives.  The place Shannon found just happened to be recently vacant as we were looking for a new home.  Along with that, she found us a bajillion boxes from someone in her ward who had moved and didn't need them, and a lady I had barely met in my ward offered us a ton of bubble wrap!

So many wonderful friends came to help us pack, and helped watch my kids-- the Schwuracks, Kacey Nielsen, Sister Preston, and of course the new and old ward families.  I was amazed at how many people -- many of whom we didn't even know-- showed up with trucks, trailers, and hands to help us move.  Then, Mom and Dawn and Sid unloaded my kitchen and put together beds.

Mom was my sanity!  She helped me organize, kept me laughing, and even helped put up my Christmas tree before she left.  How grateful am I for this generous one in my life!

After a little over a YEAR of jumping through hoops, waiting, and praying, our company's Contractor's License FINALLY came to pass in January.  Just then, we also got a great job in Mesquite for a whole complex of bathroom updates.  Jason worked non-stop for the month of January.  This entrepreneurship things is a roller-coaster, but I have hope and faith.  We will keep working hard and we'll find the way we're supposed to go.

More recently, I really wanted a kitchen table that all of our family could fit around-- we had been making do with a card table and my little - seats four- cherry table.  I have been combing craigslist and just finding nada, when I decided to post on a "Fancy Ladies"-- a Facebook page Shannon invited me to that basically connects the RS women of our new ward.  I simply said that if anyone had an old table they wanted to sell, we were interested-- figured so long as it was the right size we could always have Jacob put a corian top on it.  Just so happens, a gal who is sort related by marriage to Jason's aunt had gotten a new table and was getting rid of hers.  She offered to give it to us free!!  I still slipped her cash, but again -- timing -- generosity -- gratitude.  It's truly amazing sometimes.  For the first time since we only had two kids, I can sit at dinner and see all of family's faces.  Love it.


I have a testimony that the Lord knows us and loves us.  He cares about our needs and our wants and blessings are around every corner when we have eyes to see.  He truly is the Generous One.